Disclaimer: I don't own Shingeki no Kyojin

We're Your Family, Armin!

Armin Arlert was feeling miserable.

A few months back he had simply been living his daily life, consisting of reading, dreaming about leaving the walls, getting beaten up by bullies for it, getting saved by Eren and Mikasa and other things he did pretty much every day.

But that had all stopped when the Colossal Titan had appeared and broke the gate that kept the Titans outside.

His parents had died in the chaos but at least he still had his grandfather and his best friends with him.

But then one day it was decided his grandfather had to go and 'retake' Wall Maria.

Everyone knew it was just an excuse from the government to get some people killed and have to share less food so they could keep stuffing their own faces.

And what did he have now?

Only his grandfather's hat that said man had placed on his head before leaving.

While he may still have his friends, he didn't have any family left anymore.

He didn't talk much to Eren or Mikasa about it as he felt that they probably wouldn't understand him as they were practically family and still had each other.

And now he couldn't help the shaking of his shoulders as today was one of the days he felt the loneliest.

It was his birthday.

He was two months younger then Mikasa and three months older then Eren and was turning ten today.

It would be his first birthday without family and he wasn't sure if he could handle that.

Sure, he had his friends all the time but it was still different.

Come to think of it, where were his friends?

Maybe they were mad at him.

After all, they day before he had voiced the same thoughts he was having now aloud.

He had apologized right away and told them how happy he was with them and while they had both told him not to worry about it, them not being with him not made him not feel well.

"Armin!" a voice suddenly rang through the air.

"Huh?" he mumbled as he looked up.

There he spotted one of the members from the Garrison, Hannes.

"Happy birthday, kiddo!" the soldier greeted cheerfully and despite still being sad about the family matter, Armin smiled up at him.

"Thank you, Hannes." he politely thanked the man, happy that he ahd remembered bis birthday despite probably having better things to worry about.

"So, how are young doing today?" Hannes asked as he petted the boys head.

"The usual I guess." Armin shrugged.

"Have you seen Eren or Mikasa around today?" he asked, just wanting to know where his friends were.

The answer he got was Hannes grinning at him.

"Sure did! In fact, they are the reason I came looking for you." he said, confusing Armin.

"Huh? Why?" he asked, tilting his head slightly to the side.

"Just come with me and you'll understand." Hannes promised and without giving Armin the time to think he simply lifted the boy on her shoulders and started running in a random direction.

"H-Hannes?! Where are he going?" Armin protested and he desperately clung to the man's hair in hopes he wouldn't fall off but still tried not to hurt him.

"Somewhere!" Hannes simply laughed back and picked up his pace, completely ignoring the confused stares and angry glares he got from the people around him.

Well, he was a soldier that was supposed to be busy with fixing the titan-problem and not playing around with kids so the looks he got weren't all misplaced.

He simply kept looking straight ahead of himself and kept running, making a turn every now and then.

After a while Armin had stopped protesting about it and after getting used to sitting on a running man's shoulders he relaxed, just sitting there and waiting to be let off at wherever they were going.

He jerked and quickly grabbed onto Hannes's hair again when the soldier stopped running without warning.

"We're here!" Hannes cheerfully announced as he placed the boy back onto his own feet.

Armin took a look around.

Yep, he recognized this place.

It was near the sleeping places where they all stayed.

But why had Hannes brought him here?

"Why don't you go and open up that door over there?" Hannes suggested with a smile, seemingly haven read Armin's thoughts.

It however only made Armin more confused as the door that was mentioned was that of a closet but being too curious to just walk away from it he took a deep breath and placed his hand on the knob.

With a careful twist and pull the door opened and Armin got a hell of a bunch of confetti thrown right into his face.

"W-what the…-" he mumbled as he stumbled back on surprise.

"SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ARMIN!" he heard two familiar voices shout, one louder than the other, and when he looked back at the closet he saw his best friends Eren and Mikasa sitting inside, both smiling at him.

Eren with a grin on his face that was so big Armin was worried his friend's face would break and Mikasa with a small but kind and loving smile.

"G-guys? What is all of this?" the little blond asked, not understanding what was going on.

"We're celebrating your birthday, of course!" Eren cheered as he threw his arms in the air.

"Celebrating? So you guys are not mad at me?" Armin asked carefully.

"Why would we be mad?" Mikasa asked calmly.

"Well… Yesterday I was complaining about not having family and all and I thought I insulted you in some way so…" Armin explained, nervously poking his index fingers together.

The siblings shared a grin at that.

"We're not insulted at all." Mikasa reassured him.

"In fact, we're going to help you fix that problem!" Eren yelled and with that they both jumped out of the closet, allowing Armin to get a full view of them.

"By giving you a family!" Eren yelled as he and Mikasa struck poses they had obviously been practicing on, showing off the big red ribbons they had wrapped around their necks.

"W-WHAT?! YOU'RE GIVING ME YOURSELVES?!" Armin screamed in complete shock.

"You don't have any family left but we still have each other and that's just not fair so we decided to just be your new family." Eren explained.

"Actually, the only thing we're doing is making it official." Mikasa deadpanned as she glanced at her brother.

"Official?" Armin asked and yelped when his friends threw their arms around his shoulders, hugging him from both sides.

"We're your family, Armin!" Eren told him.

"And don't you forget it!" Mikasa ordered as a small blush appeared on her face.

"Thank you… I don't know what to say…" Armin said as he hugged them back, his cheeks also turning red.

Their moment was however destroyed when they heard someone sniffing loudly.

Turning around they saw that Hannes was still there and sniffing and sobbing at them, not even bothering to try and hide it.

"Y-you kids are just so adorable!" he cried.

"S-shut up!" Eren protested as he now also turned red while Armin and Mikasa giggled at the small idiotic moment.

"L-let's eat! Hey Armin, Mikasa and I got some spare bread and Hannes brought some honey to eat along with it!" Eren said, wanting to move on.

Armin brightened up even more at hearing that.

"Alright!" he cheered and he spend the rest of his day enjoying it with Hannes, some other soldiers he knew and had some time and with the two people that were now his new family.

The End

Yay! My 100th fic! Please review and read my other stories!